Gov. Gavin Newsom’s multi-billion-dollar plan to invest in California’s youngest residents has elicited an outpouring of positive reactions from parents, community leaders, educators, health providers and California’s early childhood advocates — some of whom have been making their case for kids in Sacramento since Ronald Reagan was governor.

As part of his $209 billion “California for All” budget proposal for the 2019-20 fiscal year, Gov. Newsom earmarked $2.7 billion for early childhood investments statewide that are aligned with First 5 LA’s priorities — including home visiting, developmental screening and early learning. The proposal includes additional funding in key areas of health, housing, education, transportation, immigration and the Census —as well as exploring options for universal preschool and expanding paid family leave to six months.

"There has not been an investment proposed of this sort by a past governor in California ever," First 5 LA Vice President of Policy and Strategy Kim Pattillo Brownson told ABC 7 News.

“Ronald Reagan was governor when I first started roaming around the capital and trying to pitch research findings and I've never seen a governor who has this kind of grasp of the evidence that if we can intervene early in the lives of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, we can begin to narrow some of the terrible disparities that persist,” said UC Berkeley education and public policy professor Bruce Fuller. “I've never seen a governor move in this way to improve the lives of young children.”

First 5 LA’s policy team has provided an initial analysis outlining key proposals in the governor’s plan that would impact California’s youngest residents and their families. If approved, this budget will direct hundreds of millions of dollars directly to providers, families, and agencies in Los Angeles County, drawing praise from First 5 LA. Executive Director Kim Belshé.

“Governor Newsom is making his priorities clear. That’s good news for parents with young children, and good for us all because of the future benefits it will bring,” Belshé said in this statement. “For L.A. County, this budget proposal will help drive our progress forward to achieve long-lasting results for children and families.”

Over the next five months, the state Legislature will review, reject and/or approve the governor’s spending proposal, add new spending or make other changes. Following the governor’s May Revision budget update, the Legislature and governor have until the June 30 state-mandated deadline to agree upon a final budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year that begins July 1. During this time, First 5 LA will work with its state advocates in Sacramento, other advocacy partners, and the network of First 5s across the state to influence the final budget to best reflect the needs of children and families in L.A. County.

So what do those who raise, care for, educate, keep healthy, advocate for and support L.A. County’s youngest children think of the governor’s proposals? We asked them to weigh in on several key early childhood elements of his plan.

Home Visiting

Gov. Newsom’s Proposal: Provides an additional $78.9 million to expand and make permanent the CalWORKs Home Visiting Initiative (HVI) created in the 2018-19 budget and $23 million to double the federally-funded Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program operated by the California Department of Public Health. Through its Welcome Baby program, First 5 LA is the largest funder of home visiting in L.A. County, serving more than 56,300 babies and families since 2009. More state resources would enable L.A. County, in partnership with First 5 LA, to serve more families.

What Home Visiting Experts Say:

“On the campaign trail, Gov. Newsom stated, ‘Our role begins when babies are still in the womb and it doesn’t end until we’ve done all we can to prepare them for a quality job and successful career.’ LA Best Babies Network and the Consortium could not agree with him more. Home visitation programs have a profound impact for parents and their children.

“The governor’s proposed budget is a step in the right direction for maternal and child health. We encourage the California legislature to embrace his bold initiatives to create a healthy California — and that means giving all families the support they need to raise healthy kids.”

“First 5 has been the largest funder of home visiting in the state, but we only reach about 11 percent of the children zero to three who need it and could benefit from it. And the benefits from home visiting are so clear and proven by such extensive research: preventing child abuse and neglect, improving birth outcomes, connecting babies and toddlers to early learning and school readiness, improving parental well-being and resilience and indeed addressing their self-sufficiency. So we know that home visiting isn’t just a good investment for kids and families, it’s great for our state.

“Gov. Newsom has made it clear in his budget that he knows investing in young kids will yield great returns for our state.”

Gov. Newsom’s Proposal: Allocates $750 million in one-time funding directed toward local education agencies to remove barriers to full school-day, full school-year kindergarten, and an additional $500 million in one-time funding to improve child care infrastructure, including support for professional development and facilities. In addition, the California State University system would receive $247 million in one-time funding that could be used to expand child care facilities for students with young children. $125 million in ongoing funding is also proposed to ensure all children eligible for the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) have access to services. This multi-year proposal would add an additional 200,000 spaces by 2022. Parents of those children would no longer have to be employed or enrolled in higher education to access the full-day program.

What Parents Say:

“I am happy that the proposal could be effective for our families, because it would mean opportunities for progress by families that are limited by the availability of preschool or child care. Some child care providers have short hours, like only three hours. This does not allow a mother to find a part-time or full-time job and this means less resources for the home. And the costs are high: $80 for 3 days for 4 hours a day and $150 per week for 4 hours a day. A family in which only one person is the provider does not have access to this. And with the increase in funds, it could re-open those places closed by lack of funds where children received care while their mothers studied English. In my case, I had to leave the classes because they closed the child care and many like me left school. So I think the funding could help mothers who have young children and want to study or work.”

Claudia de Monterrosa, Best Start Panorama City and Neighbors Community Partnership member

What Center-Based Early Learning Providers Say:

“I’m thrilled that Governor Newsom’s proposal would put kids on the right pat,starting from the cradle. That’s how children and families will succeed. This is an exceptional opportunity for us to continue strengthening early childhood education programs. The potential impact of the proposal is significant for the Girls Club of Los Angeles’ early learning center. These funds will help with interpersonal interactions, structural conditions such as a safe physical environment and facilities, age-appropriate curriculums and stable educators. Further, if approved, parents and families would benefit through increasing high-quality slots, streamline processes and mobilize resources while removing barriers to access by eliminating the current requirements.”

“My biggest challenge is getting compensated at a rate commensurate with the quality of care I provide. A childcare provider with a high school education or no education at all is compensated at the same rate as someone with a master’s degree.

“I think that it’s great that funding is coming to ECE again.However, unless a tiered reimbursement system is adopted, it will do little if anything to improve my individual program’s ability to provide more for my staff and the families I serve. That said, expanding subsidies for childcare facilities in the state as a general proposition is a good thing. However, typically, when they say facilities, they mean centers.From a family childcare provider’s perspective, our homes are facilities, so is family childcare included? If past is prologue, I’m thinking no. But at the end of the day, I am excited and supportive of the governor’s budget proposal:to make significant investments in the childcare workforce will undoubtedly improve the ability of providers to access all levels of professional development —i.e. attend workshops, get certificates, AA degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s and permits, etc. That will in my view greatly empower providers to deliver more positive quality outcomes for families and children.”

“I applaud Governor Newsom for recognizing the value of early investment in children. This is key to bridging the school readiness gap. I encourage all major players to work intentionally and strategically to collaborate and synthesize our roadmap so we can eliminate duplication of efforts and ensure seamless systems for children and families.”

Keesha Woods, First 5 LA Commissioner and Los Angeles County Office of Education Head Start and Early Learning Division Executive Director

What Early Childhood Advocates Say:

“This is historic. This is a place that we should always start budgets with. The great recession hit California ECE programs hard. We lost over 100,000 dedicated subsidized child care spaces. As a result, many family childcare programs, family childcare homes and childcare centers had to close their doors. Governor Newsom’s budget proposal shows us that he recognizes that the early care and education facilities infrastructure in the state of California is in ruins and he is offering funding to help correct that.

“In February, the Advancement Project will release a report that analyzes where we are with early care and education infrastructure in the state of California. An early report finding is there are less than 1 million early care and education facility spaces in the state of California and that is not even close to what is needed to serve the 3 million children that are under the age of 6. And it is even worse for low-income communities of color.”

Gov. Newsom’s Proposal: Allocates $10 million to develop — in partnership with the state Board of Education, Department of Finance and Department of Social Services — a roadmap toward universal preschool and a long-term plan to improve access to and quality of subsidized child care.

What Parents Say:

“It’s not the child’s fault if the parents can’t afford to send their child to preschool. To be able to provide that extra step of education and that jump start would be amazing.I can see the difference between the kids in my older son’s class who did go to preschool before kindergarten and those who didn’t go to preschool. I think the kids who went to preschool knew how to sit still, knew how to follow directions and were just better suited to succeed.”

Molly from Burbank, an early childhood professional and mother of 11-month-old Addison and two boys, one in preschool and one in first grade

What Early Childhood Advocates Say:

“What I like about this is that it’s a first step. (Gov. Newsom) has said a few times that he wants to do planning and in his budget there is money to create a roadmap for universal preschool. I think it’s a good start and he was saying this is something that is going to take time, especially for the facilities and the workforce and the funding.”

Gov. Newsom’s Proposal: With the goal of better connecting families and young children to appropriate early intervention services, the governor proposes $60 million in state and federal funding to increase developmental screening rates for young children. The budget proposal also includes $45 million in state and federal funding to ensure all families on Medi-Cal receive Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) screens. Awareness of ACEs is a critical component of building trauma-informed systems, a First 5 LA priority. The state Department of Health Care Services will establish a working group to build the screening tools and practice guidelines for young children, and First 5 LA looks forward to engaging with state leaders to further refine the proposal.

What Developmental Screening Professionals Say:

“We are extremely encouraged with the governor’s proposed budget. Increased funding will enable community health centers to implement universal developmental screening programs and will provide more resources for children identified with delays. Developmental screening identifies patients at risk for developmental delay and with delays, often before they would otherwise be identified. Once identified, Northeast Valley Health Corporation has been able to link them with services and resources to improve and at times ameliorate their delays. This can have lifelong impact, as children who start school well prepared are more likely to succeed in school, and to go on to be productive and contribute positively to our society.”

“It’s encouraging. The governor’s budget outlines the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for developmental screenings. I think the governor’s proposal makes it clear that this is a professional standard for medical providers to follow. There are a lot of physicians who aren’t using the screening measures, don’t have the training to do it, and have a lack of awareness of why they would be important. I think to have physicians feel comfortable doing screenings has to be part of business as usual so it becomes part of medical training. I think the infusion of money is beneficial in that it moves the needle in terms of practice.

“I’m also encouraged that the governor included social and emotional screening and screening for adverse events. It’s about making sure children are getting attached to the adults in their lives, are connecting with other children and meeting the milestones in their lives.”

Gov. Newsom’s Proposal: Acknowledging the critical role of parents in child development, the budget proposal sets forward an ambitious goal that every newborn or newly adopted baby in California can be cared for by a parent or family member for the first six months. Currently, family leave protections only provide six weeks of paid leave and are applicable to employees working for organizations that employ 25 or more staff. The Administration will convene a Paid Family Leavetaskforce to explore options to achieve this goal.

What Early Childhood Advocates Say:

“I think it takes a very bold and exciting new stance on leading California to become the nationwide leader on paid family leave.”

First 5 LA Vice President of Policy and Strategy Kim Pattillo Brownson

What Parents Say:

“That would have been lovely with our three children. I think those first couple months are crucial for bonding and taking care of your child and it’s really stressful when you don’t have the finances to be able to do that.”

Molly from Burbank, an early childhood professional and mother of 11-month-old Addison and two boys, one in preschool and one in first grade